Reflexive eye blink is affected by baseline cortisol levels but not by oral cortisol

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Reflexive eye blink is affected by baseline cortisol levels but not by oral cortisol Diana F. De Sá1*, Sonja Roemer1, Frauke Nees2, Carina M. Zech1, Julia Wager1 and Hartmut Schaechinger1 1 University of Trier, Department of Clinical Physiology, Institute of Psychobiology, Germany 2 Central Institute of Mental Health Mannheim, Department of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, Germany Cortisol was described to impact reflexive eye blink responsiveness, but conflicting results have been reported. In order to investigate this possible link, two studies were conducted. In the first one, we investigated the reflexive startle eye blink responses (EMG technology) to six (inter stimulus interval=10 s) brief (50 ms) and intense (105 dB) binaural acoustic white noise startle stimuli in 81 healthy subjects, 60 minutes after receiving a single oral 30 mg cortisol (n=40) dose, or placebo (n=41, control condition). We found that cortisol administration did not affect startle eye blink response magnitude to acoustic noise probes. In a second study, we assessed the EMG eye blink responses to 6 corneal airpuffs (10 psi, 50ms) in a population of 50 healthy subjects, from whom we obtained 6 samples of saliva immediately after awaking (around 6:30am) in 15-30 min. intervals (until 8am), on two different days, prior to the eye blink assessment. Subjects with higher morning cortisol levels presented a weaker reflexive eye blink response when compared with subjects with low morning cortisol. This finding corroborates previous time-of-day studies showing an inverse correlation between cortisol and reflexive eye blink. It is also in agreement with studies of pharmacological blockade of cortisol production that showed increased reflexive eye blink responses. We conclude that excess cortisol in resting humans does not affect startle, but that a negative correlation between the morning cortisol levels and startle response is present in healthy volunteers. Supported by the International Research Training Group "Psychoneuroendocrinology of Stress" funded by the German Research Foundation (GRK 1389/1) and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Conference: 41st European Brain and Behaviour Society Meeting, Rhodes Island, Greece, 13 Sep - 18 Sep, 2009. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster presentations Citation: De Sá DF, Roemer S, Nees F, Zech CM, Wager J and Schaechinger H (2009). Reflexive eye blink is affected by baseline cortisol levels but not by oral cortisol. Conference Abstract: 41st European Brain and Behaviour Society Meeting. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.08.2009.09.147 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 09 Jun 2009; Published Online: 09 Jun 2009. * Correspondence: Diana F De Sá, University of Trier, Department of Clinical Physiology, Institute of Psychobiology, Trier, Germany, dferreiradesa@gmail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Diana F De Sá Sonja Roemer Frauke Nees Carina M Zech Julia Wager Hartmut Schaechinger Google Diana F De Sá Sonja Roemer Frauke Nees Carina M Zech Julia Wager Hartmut Schaechinger Google Scholar Diana F De Sá Sonja Roemer Frauke Nees Carina M Zech Julia Wager Hartmut Schaechinger PubMed Diana F De Sá Sonja Roemer Frauke Nees Carina M Zech Julia Wager Hartmut Schaechinger Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.